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2014-03-262015-02-28

#1 March 26th 2014

Lori and Paula

Older Couple made it 2 weeks, Michael is still around

Tin and her X Patner and X husband

Getting ready for our new truck

NOTES FROM A SEMI RETIRED COUPLE#1

March 26th 2014

Hey Gang.

I know we have promised you a blog… but its not quite ready yet so we thought we would send a quick email to our close family and friends with an update over the next few weeks until we are up and running.

We arrived safely in a town called Tinley Park Il. Tuesday afternoon, US Express has a terminal here and this is where we are training and doing our orientation. USX has put us up in a Laquinta, pretty nice place.

Today was our first day of orientation, A shuttle was set to pick us up at 6:15 AM. The day started with Lori’s phone batteries dying over night so her alarm did not go off, and evidently I had my phone set on silent, so none of our alarms went off. Luckily I had asked the front dest for a back up type wake up call at 6 which is pretty much what woke us up, we scrambled to get going, and made our connection and even had time for a quick bowl of cereal.. When we arrived at training there was 16 people in our class by the end of the day we were down to 12, some didn’t pass the physical test or DOT Physical, or driving test, and one just sort of disappeared.

We both passed all our physical tests and DOT exams and our driving tests. The physical test was sort of interesting, you had to carry a 70 pound box, 75 feet 3 times and they took your pulse after each carry and you had to keep the pulse under a certain level, You then had to place the box on a shelf about 2 feet off the ground and then lift it to a shelf about 5 feet up and then down to the floor. Lastly you had to be able to get up onto a platform the height of the back of a semi trailer, and then you had to “duck walk under the platform which simulated walking under a trailer. The driving test was some city driving, some highway driving and some parking, Lori nailed a 45 degree ally park to pass on her first try and did great on the Chicago highway system

We have training all day again on Thursday, and then we find out if we are officially hired on Friday.. Sort of a nail biter, They are waiting for DOT drug tests ( we both hit the cup on the first try…)and background checks to come back, but with the driving and physical pieces behind us we are not to worried.

Everything is going well! Made a few new friends, and well its a good start to our new adventure. We are in our room and getting ready to go for dinner, Just thought I would drop a note and keep it short, and try and keep you up to date. We have no idea who are trainers are or where or when we are heading out, but when we know we will pass it on.

Love to you all, and thanks to everyone for the special send offs.. you all brought more than a tear to our eyes to see how many great friends and family we are blessed with!!!